Experienced clinical negligence specialist Josie Robinson has joined Hudgell Solicitors’ growing London practice as the firm seeks to benefit from her expertise and expand its client work into new areas.

Josie ran her own practice, Josie Robinson Solicitors, which has been purchased by Hudgell Solicitors.

With 15 years’ post qualified experience in running clinical negligence claims, Josie has forged a successful career in the industry, having previously worked for 10 years as a physiotherapist.

That experience of manging both injury recovery from a health perspective and overseeing complex compensation and rehabilitation claims, helped Josie develop a niche practice in medical negligence in sport at her own firm.

It led to her firm acting for sports men and women, who had their careers cut short due to negligent treatment of sports injuries, including an award of £300K for a professional football player at the beginning of his career.

She said: “When injuries happen doctors and physiotherapists often have to make quick and accurate medical decisions as to the nature of the injury and the best course of treatment.

“These decisions can be life changing for a professional athlete and if the wrong diagnosis and course of treatment is made, the athlete may never recover and will be unable to return to their sport often with a huge loss of future earnings.”

“Claims arising from negligent management and treatment of sports injuries, either at the elite or club level, have been a successful niche area of work for me, due to my background in physiotherapy.

“It is a growing area of my work, particularly in light of the increased awareness of the risk of brain injury from repeated concussion injuries in rugby, football and other contact sports and the serious consequences to players if these injuries are not managed correctly. Mistakes can be made by treating clinicians, in the highly charged and competitive sporting environment.”

Josie also brings substantial experience in handling mental health medical negligence claims, another area in which Hudgell Solicitors has increased its workload in recent years and is looking to expand upon following her appointment.

She has experience of representing families at inquests following the death of a loved one, recovering substantial sums for financial dependency, where the death was avoidable.

“It is a really exciting opportunity for me to use my expertise and experience to help influence the development of a growing firm like Hudgell Solicitors, so it is something I am really looking forward to,” she said.

“My practice was successful and certainly something I could have continued with, but I wanted a new challenge and to be able to use my knowledge and skills to make a bigger impact. As part of a firm like Hudgell Solicitors I will be able to influence the development of key areas of the business.”

Josie said she was impressed by new plans for the firm outlined by recently appointed chief executive Amanda Stevens and managing director Neil Hudgell, when she met them before making the switch.

Hudgell Solicitors has recently announced its plans to grow new areas of business whilst developing and strengthening its core areas of serious injury and medical negligence claims and Josie feels the move has come at the right time and is a perfect fit for herself and the firm.

“It is a very good fit for me in terms of the opportunity and challenge I was seeking, and I am sure that Neil and Amanda saw an opportunity to further develop their rehabilitation support given my background in physiotherapy,” she added.

“They also want me to help develop new areas of work given my background in sports and mental health medical negligence cases and with my experience of running my own successful practice I am well placed to contribute to business development.”

Hudgell Solicitors chief executive Amanda Stevens said: “We are delighted to have secured the services of Josie, whose skills, knowledge and experience will be a huge benefit to our work in London and the surrounding areas.

“Josie has a track record of successfully representing clients in all areas of clinical negligence, but importantly she has had vital experience of working in some niche areas within her own firm, which we feel will be of real value to us as we look to further develop our offering.

“Josie’s knowledge of running her own practice will certainly be of great assistance, as we look to further develop and grow the business into new areas, whilst she will also strengthen our core service offering of clinical negligence compensation claims given her significant experience in this area”

“We have exciting plans for our operations in London and adding Josie to the team is a key part of that.”